Psychology of anorexia: the essence of the disease, causes, methods of treatment

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Anorexia is a borderline mental disorder. Like many other diseases, it can end in the death of the patient. The psychology of anorexia is quite simple, the disorder is well studied. Mostly young girls fall ill with it, and any psychotherapist can easily trace the reasons. The syndrome of anorexia nervosa is quite successfully treatable, but only with an integrated approach. There is no magic pill, the root of the problem lies in the way of thinking and in the traumas of childhood and adolescence.

Description of the disorder

Anorexia is classified into several subspecies, but each of them has common features. The patient refuses food in order to lose weight or has no appetite. At the same time, she constantly weighs herself, keeps a diary on the Internet, takes pictures of her emaciated body - the psychology of anorexia qualifies such behavior as demonstrative. Usually young girls suffer from anorexia. But in psychiatry, cases have been recorded when the disorder was diagnosed in both men and even pregnant women.

Howdistinguish anorexia from a simple desire to be a slim person? Anorexics tend to reach unnaturally low numbers - for example, 30 or 35 kilograms. Such people subordinate their whole life and daily activities to one desire - to lose weight in any way. They don't care, due to what the decrease in numbers on the scales will be achieved - due to muscle tissue or due to fat. Often girls suffering from anorexia have other psychiatric diagnoses. This is an anxiety or depressive disorder, dysmorphophobia (dissatisfaction with their appearance), they are prone to drug addiction.

Often, anorexia leads to protein-energy malnutrition, causing the patient to die. Death from anorexia is slow and painful - all body systems fail. Outwardly, a person with anorexia is an extreme degree of exhaustion and terrifies he althy people. However, patients with anorexia themselves are proud of their thinness - they are characterized by demonstrative behavior, often they like increased attention to their person.

Causes of anorexia

Depending on the stage and concomitant diseases, treatment is prescribed. One symptom of anorexia nervosa can be identified, the most obvious - lack of appetite. The reasons for the development of the disorder are as follows:

1. In psychology, there is such a thing as the theory of phobic avoidance of food. The girl dreams of losing weight, it becomes her obsession. As a result, she becomes ill with anorexia, eventually ceases to feel hunger. In the absence of adequate comprehensive treatment, a fatal outcome may occur.
2. Disharmonious teenage crisis - often teenage girls suffer from a discrepancy between reality and their expectations from it. As a result, they lose their appetite, emaciation develops, and other mental disorders appear in parallel. If the cause is in a crisis, then you should find a good psychologist or psychotherapist to work with a teenager. In most cases, concurrent drug therapy is needed.
3. Personal factors - pedantic, neurotic personalities often try to achieve the ideal, from their point of view, figure. The result is a borderline disorder. As a rule, in this case, in parallel with anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, a neurotic condition, can be diagnosed.
4. Cultural factors - the desire to look as thin as possible, imitating one's own fictional ideal (celebrities, models, etc.). In this case, we can talk about dysmorphophobia, that is, dissatisfaction with one's own body and appearance, which is accompanied by anorexia. In psychology, the cause of dissatisfaction with one's own appearance is interpreted as a consequence of childhood or adolescent trauma. A person can bring himself to complete exhaustion just for the sake of conforming to some ghostly fictional ideals.

Varieties of anorexia

As mentioned above, anorexia is rarely the only diagnosis. Very often, in parallel, the patient suffers from otherdisorders. Psychologically, anorexia is classified as follows:

1. Primary anorexia is diagnosed in children under 10-12 years old. As a rule, they lose their appetite for psychological reasons - conflicts in the family and at school, divorce of parents, death of a loved one or pet. Such traumas can leave a deep mark on the child's psyche, even if the child does not recognize it. The worst thing a parent can do in such a situation is to force-feed the child. As a result, anorexia can take on the form of "contrary" behavior, when the child withdraws into himself and generally refuses to make contact with adults and psychologists.
2. Anorexia nervosa syndrome, in which the patient loses 15-60 percent of body weight in a short period of time. Anorexia nervosa occurs in both adolescents and adults. Moreover, in some clinical cases, a person does not seek to lose weight, he simply loses his appetite due to an experienced trauma. Anorexia nervosa may not be monotonous: acute periods are replaced by remission. During remission, the patient can return part of the body weight back, but after a while, a relapse occurs again. In psychology, anorexia nervosa often goes hand in hand with a post-stress period, increased anxiety, depressive disorders, and dysmorphophobia.
3. Medicated anorexia usually occurs unconsciously. As a result of taking certain medications, the patient loses his appetite and interest in food, his eating behavior changes imperceptibly to others and himself. In drug anorexia, usuallyit is enough to just stop taking the medication that caused the loss of interest in food.
4. A relatively rare type of eating disorder is male anorexia. The psychology of men is arranged differently than that of women. Representatives of the stronger sex are not characterized by dysmorphophobia and the desire to lose weight. As a rule, male anorexia is caused by post-traumatic stress syndrome. Often, the representatives of the stronger sex do not adequately reflect a decrease in appetite. Relatives and relatives begin to sound the alarm when a significant body mass has already been lost.

Bulimia and anorexia: differences and features of therapy

If anorexia is an eating disorder in which a person loses appetite, then bulimia is characterized by excessive absorption of food. Oddly enough, but in patients with anorexia often the symptoms are replaced by bulimia. Patients themselves call these behavioral changes "relapse".

It happens like this: a girl starves herself, achieves the coveted figure on the scales. As a result, she "breaks down", that is, a bulimic crisis occurs. At this time, patients can eat a huge amount of food - and not necessarily delicious. For example, a fragile girl can eat a loaf, a full pot of boiled rice, drink two liters of sweet sparkling water. Of course, after a long fast during a bulimic crisis, the body experiences a shock. Internal bleeding may begin, the patient may be hospitalized with intestinal obstruction. Many patients after a bulimic crisis provokevomit, which leads to constant irritation of the esophagus.

Oddly enough, but anorexia nervosa and bulimia are treated the same way. It's like two sides of the same coin: in both cases, psychotherapy with a competent specialist and taking psychotropic drugs will help. In addition, if chronic diseases of the internal organs have begun, you will also have to undergo a course of therapy to restore the internal organs. At home, signs of anorexia nervosa and bulimia are quite easy to identify, but for treatment you will have to go to the hospital. Patients with eating disorders are cunning and prone to lying - only experienced professionals in the hospital can provide real help.

Medicated anorexia: symptoms and treatment

Medicated anorexia may or may not be intentional. Many young girls, in an attempt to get rid of their appetite and lose weight, purchase drugs in pharmacies that are prohibited for free sale. These are some antidepressants and metabolic drugs - you need a prescription from a doctor to buy them, but many unscrupulous pharmacies sell them illegally. Taking such drugs contributes to a complete or partial loss of appetite, as a result of which the patient loses weight very quickly. Such drugs have many side effects, so that young girls with this method of losing weight are at risk of acquiring many chronic diseases. If patients with eating disorders use antidepressants to lose weight, mental pathologies develop.

But it also happens that the patient is prescribed medication,contributing to loss of appetite. In this case, he loses weight unintentionally. Even without wanting to, he can lose several kilograms a week. In this case, there is only one treatment - the abolition of the drug, which provoked a loss of appetite. Lost weight will quickly return.

Anorexia nervosa: symptoms and treatment

How to recognize anorexia nervosa in a person:

• he is rapidly losing weight;
• People can eat normal portions of food, but after a meal, they go to the bath or toilet to get rid of what they have eaten;
• on the wrist can wear a red thread (on this basis, losing weight girls recognize each other);
• not shy about his thinness - on the contrary, he gets clothes in small sizes.

These symptoms are typical for those patients who lose weight intentionally. Anorexia nervosa in adolescents is characterized by demonstrative behavior - they like to maintain their own pages on social networks, they demonstrate their thinness, prefer open and tight clothes.

Anorexia nervosa can also be unintentional - in this case, a person loses weight due to a simple lack of appetite. This phenomenon usually occurs after severe stress - loss of a loved one, unrequited love, betrayal of a friend, etc.

Both in the first and in the second case, anorexia nervosa will have the same treatment - psychotherapy and antidepressants, if necessary - antipsychotics and tranquilizers. It is important to ensure that the patientalways took the required dose of drugs. If we are talking about intentional anorexia, then such patients often lie to their loved ones that they want to get better and throw the pills into the trash in secret from their loved ones. In this case, only hospitalization in the clinic can help.

Anorexia and men and young children

Men and young children also sometimes lose weight rapidly. Most often this is a consequence of experienced mental trauma. As a rule, this category of patients quickly recovers, as they do not intentionally lose weight. The psychological aspects of anorexia in men are not obsession with appearance (dysmorphophobia), and not striving for the ideal. As a rule, men lose their appetite due to problems at work and in the family, because of a sense of their own inadequacy.

In both children and men, weight returns to normal quickly, the main thing is to identify the underlying problem. The psychology of anorexia in children is often primary, and there may be exacerbations throughout life. a competent psychotherapist will be able to quickly identify the cause of loss of appetite and work it out with the patient. Usually you don't even have to resort to pharmacological therapy.

Anorexia in pregnant women

Anorexia is relatively rare in pregnant women. In the most important nine months, they refuse meals, motivated by the fear of gaining weight and not being attractive. If ordinary patients with anorexia slowly kill only themselves, then pregnant women kill both themselves and the fetus. During fetal development, the baby shouldreceive the full range of vitamins and minerals, otherwise miscarriage, premature birth, deviations in the development of the child in the future may occur.

The problem of anorexia during pregnancy is the inability to take psychotropic drugs, because they can affect the development of the fetus negatively. However, if the mother's life is at stake, she may be forcibly admitted to a specialized clinic.

Drancorexia is a dangerous subspecies of the disorder

Drancorexia is a rare type of eating disorder in which the patient refuses food in favor of alcoholic beverages. At the same time, patients carefully calculate the calorie content of the daily diet so as not to gain weight. They take into account the calories from alcohol, and in order not to exceed the daily calorie intake, they refuse food.

Is it necessary to say that such an approach is detrimental to internal organs and he alth in general? Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach primarily affects the pancreas and liver. Patients do not look beautiful (as they want) - they look haggard, exhausted by deeply ill people. If the patient does not understand the importance of therapy and deceives his loved ones, there is only one way out - forced hospitalization in the IPA.

Modern treatments for anorexia

Anorexia is considered one of the simplest pathologies in psychology. Treatment of anorexia is possible - many patients achieve long-term remission. However, it should becomplex and take place under the supervision of a physician. If there is an opportunity to be treated in a hospital, you can not refuse. Patients with anorexia are prone to lying, which relatives are often unable to recognize due to prejudice.

Methods of treating eating disorders are as follows:

• group therapy;
• individual psychotherapy;
• talking with a nutritionist about the role of proper nutrition and the consequences of malnutrition;
• taking old-generation antidepressants (SSRI drugs reduce appetite, which is unacceptable for patients with anorexia);
• tranquilizers and neuroleptics for psychotic behavior, anxiety and self-harm.